A Quick Portrait

All of my old poems
Contain too many adjectives
(most of them
came from
the thesaurus
but that’s a secret
so don’t tell).

I wonder
what would it look like
if the words were left
Bare
with only the page
beneath them?

If the words
were left
to mean what they mean,
And for that to just be that?

If mother was just mother.
If cat was just cat.
If cookie was just cookie.
If scared was just scared
But also lonely too
And some nights
Unable to sleep
And not for lack of trying.
If small wasn’t so earnest a description,
If forgotten weren’t the truth of what it’s like in there,
If delicate was not an insult
But just a thing
That some people are
Sometimes
And maybe even
A beautiful thing
At that.

Hannah Matzecki is a writer and mother. She lives in California with her husband, daughter, and two cats. In addition to writing, Hannah likes to spend her days dancing barefoot in her living room and concocting new recipes for pie.